The Third Parent Page 6

  Katie looked at me and then hugged me close. “Of course I believe you.”

  “What should we do?” I asked, my voice muffled against her arm.

  Katie hugged me tighter. “We stay alive.”

  Chapter 3 —1997

  Two years he had been with us and still showed no sign of leaving. I was beginning to think that this hell would last for the rest of my life. The sun rose and fell, each dawn bringing with it another portrayal of beauty that I would never be a part of. Nothing in my life felt beautiful. Nothing felt alive. Each sunrise was another shuddering breath of daylight that I was missing out on. My childhood was slipping away from me. Dreams of normality began to feel like fantasy. Every time I woke up, came home, or walked out of my room I was confronted by grinning madness.

  There are pieces of that year that still remain a mystery to me. Like what did Tommy do to my parents in the basement that night? What did Mom do with the gun? Why were the following months spent in almost complete silence? I think that was the worst part. Mom and Dad stopped talking and Katie and I were left alone on an island of isolation, our minds and hearts surrounded by the dark waters of uncertainty. I like to think that my parents were doing it to stay out of trouble. That maybe being silent was better than risking Tommy’s anger. But looking back, I think that they were breaking. And who could blame them? The stress of keeping our family afloat, the never-ending secrecy, the lies we all had to tell…I could feel the fibers of our family begin to fray.

  Dad looked like he was coming down with a terminal illness by the time New Years rolled around. His skin was tight against his bones, his eyes ringed with dark circles that reminded me of a picture I had once seen of a black hole. And that’s what our household had become. A black hole, sucking everything into it and giving nothing back. Each of us consumed the torment silently and as winter melted into spring once again, we had all but forgotten what the light looked like.

  Katie was my constant during those long, cold months. She remained a pillar of strength at my side, despite the almost constant silence our house basked in. It was her eyes. They still burned with a hope that one day this would pass. I wanted to believe in that warmth. I wanted to believe in that dream, that this captivity was only temporary. But two years is a long time when there’s no end in sight. I remember being in school and thinking to myself, Why doesn’t anyone do anything to help us? Can’t they see how miserable I am?

  I think it was that winter that I began to lose faith in humanity. It was then that I came to the cruel realization that people just don’t give a shit. Sure, they may ask if you’re doing ok, but those words rang hollow in my skull like the clang of a cracking bell. I don’t know what lies my teachers told themselves as I slowly shrank into myself, speaking less and less, grades dropping, an emptiness in my face. Sure, they poked and prodded, but it was only enough to ease their morality. When I would just shrug and tell them I was fine, they locked the questions away in a vault. They had done their civic duty. Who cares if another kid slips through the cracks? Another one would just take my place with his or her own problems. Why get invested in whatever was obviously troubling me? Why put yourself out there?

  Summer arrived in a blast of heat and humidity. I don’t really remember much about that time. I played with Jason occasionally, swam in the pool, ate hot dogs, and watched fireworks on the Fourth of July. On the outside, we were still a perfectly constructed American family, and that was just the way Tommy wanted it. Keep up appearances, keep a smile on your face, and do what you’re told. I didn’t know too much about what was happening in the rest of the neighborhood, but from the bits Jason told me, it was bad.

  But how could Tommy be here…and also…there? It didn’t make sense and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. The nightly lessons continued, now a neat thirty minutes of instruction on how to behave and act. Listening to Tommy lecture us on love and goodwill towards all…it made me sick. I learned to hate those sessions, the four of us crammed on the couch, nodding our heads, eyes vacant, as Tommy paced in front of us, teaching, talking, guiding.

  The voice in my headphones only spoke to me a few times over the course of the year, usually when I was asleep. I would stir, the tail end of his voice lingering in my ears like a bad taste in my mouth, followed by a wash of static. I tried not to listen to it, tried not to think about it. It scared me and I felt like I was under a spotlight, like it was directing Tommy’s attention to me. Like he would know it had been speaking to me. Things were stirring beneath the veneer of normality my parents kept up.

  When the leaves began to change, I could tell something was going to happen. The mood had subtly changed in the house, my parents suddenly sharper. The dark circles around my father’s eyes remained, but there was something else swirling in the void now. Something cautious yet dangerous.

  It was a windy night in October when I found out what.

  I was asleep, lost in a horrific dream. I was sinking in a great body of water, the night sky starless above me. I was screaming, calling for help, as the inky depths swelled around me and pulled my body down into their jaws. In the distance I thought I could hear something…it sounded like a…a horn or whistle. It was blaring from far off, a desperate screech into the empty night.

  And I knew that it was important. I knew that if I wanted to save myself from drowning then I needed to get to the source of that sound. The deep notes churned across the water and as I descended, eyes bulging, I knew it would be the last thing I would ever hear. Right before death took me, I looked down and screamed.

  The ocean was filled with hundreds of lights, all of them white and blinking lazily. Something about them sent a bullet of terror ripping through my heart. I opened my mouth to scream and water rushed in, pressing down my throat like endless, wet silk.

  The lights…they weren’t supposed to be down here…this was wrong, this was all wrong.

  I’m going to need you someday.

  The voice rose around me like tendrils and I pushed myself away, clawing at the murky depths, knowing I was about to die.

  “Jack!”

  I jerked awake, my body coated in sweat. I sat up, gasping, head spinning as I tried to get my bearings. I sucked down air, the sensation of drowning still fresh on my tongue.

  “Jack, are you awake?” a voice I recognized asked quietly, a hand gently shaking my shoulder.

  I looked up into the pale face of my father, his eyes two black spots on a white sheet. I rubbed my hands over my cheeks, ridding myself of the nightmare, and nodded. My chin touched my headphones, now curled around my neck. The ear pads were slick with sweat and I thought I could hear static faintly buzzing through them.

  “We’re leaving, son, right now. Come on, let’s go,” Dad said, pulling the covers off me. I blinked back the cobwebs of slumber and ran my tongue across my teeth. What had he just said?

  “Stay quiet,” Dad urged, pulling me toward the door. “Mom and your sister are already in the car waiting for us. We don’t have much time.”

  “We’re…leaving?” I croaked, throat dry.

  “Shh, keep your voice down. Yes, now come with me,” Dad said, reaching my bedroom door with me in tow. He peeked out into the hallway and then softly led us to the stairs. The house was dark and eerily quiet. In my dazed state, I thought of the ocean depths I had been drowning in.

  “But what about Tommy?” I whispered, following my father down the stairs.

  We reached the bottom and Dad looked back at me. “I don’t know where he is right now, but we’re getting out of this house. For good.” His words took a moment to sink in, the two of us slinking to the front door. Were we leaving? Were we leaving this prison? Were we getting away from Tommy? Something blossomed in my stomach and it was such a strange sensation that it took a second for me to identify what it was. Hope. Real, true hope. Dad was doing something about this hellish situation, taking back the reigns of fatherhood and leading us out of the desert like tumbleweeds in the
night.

  Dad opened the front door after taking a cautious look over his shoulder and then pushed me through. A cool breeze washed over my sticky skin like cold fabric and I breathed in the sensation with a sense of relief. Dad clicked the door closed behind us and we double-timed it to the family van parked in the driveway. I could see my mother’s silhouette in the passenger’s seat and practically felt her urgency cracking like electricity through the vehicle.

  Dad opened the sliding door of the van and I scurried up into the captain’s seat across from my sister. As Dad closed the door, Katie looked at me, her eyes huge in the dim shadows. I returned the stare, shock finally finding me and shaking my scattered mind.

  We’re really leaving.

  I reached out and Katie immediately took my hand, bridging the gap between the two seats. As Dad pulled the driver’s side door open and got in, I realized I was still in my pajamas, my bare feet sticking out in front of me. I had a sudden urge to run inside and get my shoes, a purely reactionary instinct. I looked at the dark face of our house, my eyes peeling apart every shadow, every corner, every window.

  Where was Tommy?

  Dad turned the van on and backed us out of the driveway. My mother remained silent, but I saw she was gripping the armrest so hard her nails had punctured the cloth. At the foot of the driveway, Dad hit the gas.

  We were escaping.

  “It’s going to be ok, Penny,” my dad said quietly, his voice not quite steady.

  My mother looked over at him as we departed down the street. “But, Mike…if he catches us…”

  “He’s not,” Dad said a little more firmly. “We’ve been over this a thousand times. We have a plan, we have the kids, and everyone is safe right now. I’m not staying another night in that house with that…that…” He trailed off and let the hum of the engine finish his sentence. Our street was empty and still, each house like a coffin daring anyone to look inside.

  “Where are we going?” Katie asked as we turned down a connecting road, the full moon illuminating the night. It was the only witness to our act of desperation, a lunar face lighting the way, rooting for us, urging us to follow its soft rays.

  “Far, far away,” Dad said darkly from the front seat. “We’ll stop at a motel once we’ve put some miles between us and the house. I don’t know if he will—or can—follow us, but I don’t want to risk it. Why don’t you try and get some sleep? I’ll wake you in a couple hours once we get to the motel.”

  I looked at the green numbers on the dashboard and saw it was a little after midnight. I turned in my seat to look out the back window. A runway of darkness stretched behind us and I shivered.

  We were…escaping.

  We fell into an uneasy silence, none of us daring to speak. We let Dad concentrate on driving, his knuckles white against the wheel, the headlights blazing a path to freedom in front of us. I recognized where we were, but after an hour of tense travel, I lost track and gave up trying.

  The neighborhoods and country houses faded into the hills behind us. I pressed my face to the window, trying to decipher where we were. The moon illuminated acres of cornfields, their long stalks swaying in the October wind. Endless miles of farmland grew tight against the edges of the road.

  My mother broke the silence first, her voice a strained whisper. “I still think we should go to the police, Mike…”

  Dad shook his head, eyes trained on the road. “No, we talked about this. Even if they could help us, we both know they wouldn’t find Tommy. He’s far too clever for that. And then, after the investigation and follow-up, he would find us again. He would know what we had done and then he would come back. It might be days, it might be weeks, but Penny…we both know he’d come back. I can’t live my life like that. I won’t. My first priority is protecting this family as best I can and I think the smartest option is for us to slip quietly over the horizon without making a sound.”

  Mom reached out and squeezed my dad’s arm. “Ok, Mike. I believe you. I trust you. I just want to feel…to feel safe, to feel protected, if only for a night…”

  I felt a heaviness settle over my father and Mom quickly rubbed his arm apologetically. “I’m sorry, Mike…that wasn’t fair. You know what I mean.”

  Dad slowly nodded, his voice pained. “I’m sorry it’s taken this long for me to do something. Tommy…he’s just…we couldn’t…”

  Mom reached up and stroked his face. “I know, Mike…I know…you don’t have to say anything.”

  I felt Katie suddenly tap my shoulder and I looked over at her. Mom and Dad were still talking so she just pointed to my neck. I looked down, hands going to my throat, and I realized I still had my headphones with me.

  Faintly, I heard static buzzing from them.

  I looked up at Katie and shared a worried look. She tapped her neck, shooting a look at Mom and Dad in the front. It had been months since we had had the conversation about the strange man who spoke to me. We hadn’t discussed it since, but I always felt like my sister wanted to ask more about it. And now she heard the static, as well, and was urging me to put on the headphones and listen.

  I didn’t know if it was curiosity or fear that drove her, but I slowly obeyed, hands shaking slightly. A tightness settled around my throat as I slid them over my ears, the dark landscape blurring outside the window.

  And then the voice.

  “He’s in the cornfields.”

  My heart sank into my stomach and my legs suddenly began to tingle. A wash of soft static and the earpieces went silent once again, the single warning an echo in my head. Quietly, I pulled the headphones off and forced myself to breathe. Katie stared at me expectantly, wringing her hands in her lap.

  Well? Did anything happen?! Her eyes begged.

  I turned away from her and forced myself to look out the window at the rows and rows of corn zipping by under the watchful gaze of the moon. I felt fear uncoil its fist in my stomach as my eyes danced across the darkness, every shadow and swaying stalk growing eyes, teeth, and malicious intent. He couldn’t be out there…please…don’t let him be out there…following us…

  BANG!

  We all jumped at the sudden noise as the car lurched across the road, my father gripping the wheel with both hands as a horrible thumping sound hammered beneath us.

  “Oh no, are you kidding me…?” Dad whispered, slamming down on the brakes.

  “What is it?! What’s happening!?” Katie shrieked, sitting straight up in her seat.

  The van came to a rolling stop along the side of the road, the stalks of corn mere feet from my window. Mom was staring at Dad, eyes bulging, jaw clenched.

  “It’s a flat,” Dad said, forcing himself to breathe as he turned off the car.

  I clutched my headphones with both hands, a gurgling paranoia emerging from the pit of my stomach. No, no, no, no…

  “Dad,” I croaked, “Dad we can’t stop. We have to go.”

  Dad turned around, one hand on the back of my mother’s headrest. “It’s going to be ok. We have a spare in the back. Everyone just stay in the car while I change the tire. We’ll be back on the road in five minutes.”

  “Dad!” I practically screamed. “Dad you can’t go out there!”

  My father mustered a look of assurance and tried to smile. “I’ll be quick, Jack…just…just keep your eyes open, ok?”

  I watched in horror as he unfastened his seatbelt and opened the car door. I pressed my face to the glass as he walked around to the back and popped the hatch. Now on my knees, completely turned around in my seat, I prayed silently under my breath. This was wrong, this was all wrong. This couldn’t be a coincidence.

  He was out there.

  Dad pulled the jack and spare from the compartment beneath the trunk and set about changing the tire. The wind rustled through the corn and I stared at their thin bodies like they were skeletons about to come to life and snatch us away.

  “Jack, what did he say?” Katie whispered, leaning close, her hand gripping my arm.

>   I swallowed hard and turned to my sister, the full moon reflecting in her eyes, “I think he’s close…”

  Katie just stared at me, her face a canvas of terror. Mom fiddled nervously in the front as we felt Dad begin to jack the car up. I turned again to the cornfields and ran my eyes over every shadow and flicker of movement.

  The cool October air blew through the open trunk and I shivered, the road behind us a long ebony tongue. The clank of tools along with the shifting corn filled the night and formed an ensemble of tension that dried my mouth to dust. Crickets unseen chirped in the pale light, a familiar song that felt out of place and nauseating.

  “Come on, Dad,” I muttered, biting my lip. “Come on, come on, come on.”

  Suddenly, the headphones buzzed once again, just a dim chuckle of static. Immediately I snatched them from my neck and crammed them over my ears, heart gurgling up my throat.

  “He’s coming.”

  I whipped my gaze back to the wall of corn and a shudder ran through me. For just a second, I thought I saw two blue eyes shining at me from between the stalks. But the image vanished just as soon as it came and I was left shaking in my seat.

  “Jack…” Katie begged, clawing at my shoulder.

  I undid my seatbelt, sweat forming on my bro., “Mom, I’m going to help Dad. Tommy is here.”

  Mom looked back at me and I saw her face change like the seasons. “What do mean? Did you see him!?”

  I crawled past Katie, fumbling for the handle. “I don’t know, Mom, but I think he’s out there in the corn. I can’t explain it.”

  “Jack, no!” Mom cried, spinning and grabbing my hands away. “Your father can handle it, sit back down!”

  “Mom, I need to help him! This is taking too long!” I practically cried, slumping back in my seat. I heard a grate of metal as Dad slid the flat off.

  “He’s almost finished,” Mom pleaded. “We’re almost out of here.” But her face betrayed her, a sheen of sweat now budding under her eyes.